Alright you can stop spamming my twitter account now with your not so very subtle promotional messages (seriously, what an odd and annoying thing to do), I watched the movie. So how is it? Far from impressive really.
I actually really like sports movies, no matter what type of sports they involve. They are always very uplifting and inspiring to watch, as well as often engaging. Just not this movie as well though. When thinking back about it, there isn't even an awful lot of running in this movie, caused by the many, many different other distractions that are in the movie.
It isn't just only a problem that the story is filled with many needless distractions in it but it's maybe even a bigger problem that all of these distractions are extremely formulaic ones and turn the movie in a far too predictable and standard one. It features a lot of dramatic clichés in it, such as an unstable home situation, a reluctant coach and of course a love story. Most of the side-plots feel absolutely pointless and are only there to add to the drama. The movie seems to think that the more drama is featured in it, the more engaging and effective it becomes to watch as well. But less is definitely more at times and sometimes it's simply more important to handle drama and certain emotions in a subtle kind of way, instead of constantly being into your face with all of it. Save that for soap operas and made for TV melodramas instead!
Another big reason why the movie just wasn't ever working out for me was because of the cast and characters. The movie actually has some pretty big name actors in it but the bigger the names, the less screen time they have really, so please don't be fooled. Kim Basinger and Cam Gigandet are for instance barely in the movie and I actually do believe that the movie would have been a better one without their characters. But it's also definitely true that the main lead, Kelly Blatz, just doesn't have enough charisma to carry this movie. Why should I care about it whether he's going to succeed or not? I don't even know what he's trying to achieve. Run the mile and then what? How is that supposed to affect and change his life? I feel that I hardly know a thing about the character, what drives him and what his plans and dreams for the future are. But even worse is Richard Jenkins as the coach. There just isn't anything likable about his character and there is absolutely no chemistry or tight bond between him and the runner, played by Kelly Blatz.It's also annoying how the movie doesn't wrap all of its different story lines up. The ending is quite abrupt and it leaves a ton of questions. The overall movie feels very lazy, not just because it isn't always explaining everything or wrapping every single plot line up but also because the story relies on just clichés and isn't ever really trying to do anything new or surprising with either its story or characters.
Not the worst movie you can run into (yes, that was a pun) but not exactly a great, uplifting or very engaging movie either.
5/10
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